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Obamacare: It just depends on whom you believe

Posted: September 26, 2012 - 12:08am

Savannah

The Affordable Care Act or Obamacare has at long last made Americans wake up and take notice of our entire health care system. That is a good thing. Unfortunately, the proposed changes or present provisions are complex and conflicted. That’s the bad thing.

American seniors and seniors–to–be, have little idea of any of the effects except to believe or not believe the various provisions. And what’s worse, in this political year, with polarized extremism from both parties, who do you believe in all this mess?

Will American seniors have to pay more, will hospitals deny services and perhaps even close down, will providers quit caring for Medicare patients as the trends show, will government or private insurance companies take advantage of all this, etc, etc, etc. We don’t know. They don’t know. And that’s what’s making this a disaster scenario for all of us. That is why it is such a critical issue.

Some of you may have read the editorial column in the Aug. 20 issue of USA Today. It was excellent and I want to quote or paraphrase some of the points presented. I found the editorial writers “hit the nail on the head” with unbiased facts and commentary.

The editorial writers stated, “It’s game on. But to understand the contest — and associated scare tactics — it’s best to first understand facts that are not in dispute.”

Medicare insurance, as it stands today, cannot be sustained — period. The newspaper provides the statistical facts to prove it. What it all shows is that the monies gap of what we pay as citizens will not even come close to what health care will cost now and certainly in the future. Whatever the fix, it will be painful and that fact is true if the law is retained or repealed. As USA Today put it, “no matter who wins, beneficiaries will pay more or get less, likely both. People who say otherwise are deluding themselves.”

We don’t really know the specifics of the Romney plan, but veep candidate Rep. Paul Ryan has made his views quite clear in his proposed budget. It represents a shift of costs from the government to the beneficiary. It proposes using market forces to hold down costs charged by private insurance companies. His idea is to use a voucher system where Medicare eligible citizens would receive a fixed amount per year for their medical expenses. Traditional Medicare, in one form or another, could also be available.

The problem here is how much money will the voucher provide. Where does the monetary figure come from considering some Medicare people use up zero funds, while others, individually, charge up to thousands of dollars. The fear is costs would grow much faster than the voucher amount. I’d bet money on that.

Obamacare would deal with most of the costs at the expense of the providers, hospitals and others. Obviously those people are not happy with that idea. Actually this is the way it has worked since the inception of Medicare in 1965 when I was a young staffer at the American Medical Association. All of it was based on fee for service charges that may have been OK then, but cannot continue today.

So which plan will work? The truth is neither will suffice and neither deals with real reform. Both plans’ so-called savings come very slowly, but the pain each one will cause could be felt sooner that later.

One must remember that seniors have little capability to increase their incomes, but health care costs have great capability to grow. There is just no assurance that the so-called marketplace idea will work to bring down costs of anything. It simply is more likely to burden both beneficiaries and providers of care.

Take a deep breath because I predict at last a start to a “silver lining”! That start is simply the awakening, to this problem that has existed for a very long time. Either plan is a beginning, but not a finish. We cannot have pre-existing conditions; We cannot have capped health care expenditures; we cannot let insurance companies continue these ridiculous provisions that made them rich. We have to examine, very seriously, new ways of providing and paying for healthcare in the United States.

Not easy. It will take time, analysis and “guts,” but it can be done and there are places in this country, at present, doing just that.

What I want to convince you of is this. Vote for your favorite candidate this November on his plan for economics, foreign policy performance, personality, whatever. But don’t make your decision on a political party’s health care policy.

In the next four years real change has little chance to occur. It’s far too complicated. Congress cannot make decisions on naming a post office, let alone reforming health care costs. Maybe, just maybe, enough trial and error will have occurred to make it a true issue in 2016.

So who do you believe; there are so many misstatements, distortions and downright lies. I don’t believe either party knows “what the heck” will work. I read all of Obamacare and researched what the Republicans plan to do. I can shoot holes in both, but “the game is on.”

Columnist Mike Silver lives in Pinecrest and may be reached by email at michaelsilver@hargray.com or by calling 843-815-3894.

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